U.S. Department of Agriculture Teams With Accenture to Develop eGovernment Strategy
eGovernment Blueprint to Assist Department with Government Paperwork Elimination Act and Freedom to eFile Act Compliance
WASHINGTON, D.C.; Jan. 7, 2002 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has contracted with Accenture to develop recommendations for a department-wide eGovernment strategy and to help the Department design processes that would bring it into compliance with the Government Paperwork Elimination (GPEA) and the Freedom to eFile acts.
The contract comes just months after the Office of Management and Budget commended the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for being among the few federal departments with solid plans for complying with GPEA. Accenture had conducted the strategic planning that underpinned the planned transition of these departments to a paperless environment.
The USDA strategy is expected to help the Department determine how to better serve its broad-based constituency, which ultimately includes all citizens, and how to use technology to operate more efficiently. The eGovernment strategy also is intended to create a blueprint for specific USDA-wide eGovernment goals and objectives. It will identify cross-agency and agency-specific opportunities for using the Internet and other electronic means to provide services.
The four–month contract is valued at $500,000.
“Accenture is pleased to be working with the USDA, and is proud of the work we’ve conducted to date for HUD and Treasury, helping them set the pace to move toward an electronic future,” said Stan Gutkowski, managing partner for Accenture’s Federal Government practice. “With effective use of technology to increase efficiency, provide more information and connect more directly to the American public, government can provide a greater level of services to citizens.”
With a robust information collection, storage and retrieval system that takes full advantage of the latest technology, government also can reduce operating costs and safeguard important files from being destroyed in an unexpected disaster, such as the service records of veterans destroyed by fire in St. Louis or the vital government paperwork that was lost in the explosion at the World Trade Center.
About Accenture
Accenture is the world’s leading management consulting and technology services organization. Through its network of businesses approach - in which the company enhances its consulting and outsourcing expertise through alliances, affiliated companies and other capabilities - Accenture delivers innovations that help clients across all industries quickly realize their visions. With more than 75,000 people in 47 countries, the company generated net revenues of $11.44 billion for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2001. Its home page is www.accenture.com.
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Barbara Hohbach
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